Company Warns Of Fallout From EU Anti-dumping Case
The last two years have been laden with media stories on solar PV, largely concerning plummeting solar prices, with support policies such as feed in tariffs not always managing to keep pace with this downward trend. This story, however, concerns something very different. The European Commission is trying to protect European-based PV manufacturers by putting an import duty on panels coming from China. This will stop the downward price trend in its tracks, to the detriment not only of households and businesses that want to benefit from installing their own PV systems, but also the companies that install them. This misguided initiative, slated for June of this year, also has a sting in the tail with the duty being potentially retroactive to the 6th March (presently the duty rate is not stated).
"This import duty can only be seen as a stealth tax," said James Steynor, Managing Director of the Solar Building Company Ltd. " It drives up the cost of renewables for householders and small businesses, who were attracted by the prospects of becoming greener and protecting themselves against ever higher electricity bills."
Throughout Europe, and most recently in the UK, governments have driven the renewable sector to reduce costs by continually reducing the subsidies on solar power. In response to this pressure, many suppliers who would have chosen a European supplier of panels chose instead to buy from China, a country committed to invest strategically in solar PV technology to alleviate global warming.
The governments in European Member States stand to benefit from this stealth tax. But it will be green householders and businesses, as well as the companies that install PV systems, who will pay the price. In the UK alone this threatens an industry employing close to 40,000 people. Throughout Europe up to 250,000 jobs are now at risk.
"The initiative for import duties is headed by a small group of remaining EU-based manufacturers. It's understandable that they want to protect their businesses, but they employ less than 0.4% of the EU solar workforce," said Steynor. "A more constructive stance from the Commission would have been to assist them to become more competitive.
"Only by abandoning this ill-advised import duty can governments help the green minded consumers, save thousands of jobs "“ and protect an entire industry that is at the heart of the fight against global warming supposedly so dear to the politicians," he added.
